The Horse and Cow Pub and
Grill (536 Fourth Street) will host a first anniversary block
party from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday. The street will be shut
down and beers from the local breweries served, along with live
music, barbecue and $2 burgers.

KITSAP QUIZ NIGHT: BREWER’S EDITION

Did I mention I host a news trivia night? On Thursday, July 16,
we’ll do a local beer-inspired quiz at the Manette Saloon (2113 E.
11th Street) starting sharply at 7 p.m.

For more details, check out the
Facebook invite here and be sure to RSVP. Bring a team or
just bring yourself. The winning team will get beer-related prizes
to take home.

BREWFEST PREVIEW NIGHT

On the eve of the actual BrewFest, Toro Lounge (315 Pacific Avenue)
is hosting a preview featuring several local breweries. It will run
from 6-8 p.m.

BREMERTON SUMMER BREWFEST

Aaaaand we’ve come to the main event: from noon to 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 18, 30 craft breweries from around Washington will
pour around 100 different beers. This year — the fifth in the
festival’s history — is the first time it won’t be located on
Pacific Avenue, and instead will pack the Louis Mentor Boardwalk
near the maria. Each year has drawn thousands of people from all
over Western Washington. Tickets are $25 at the door or $20 if
pre-purchased, which buys you six five-ounce tastes. Tickets can be
purchased here.

That should do it, ladies and gents (let me know if I’ve missed
any!). And please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you
have questions.

For more information about each of Kitsap County’s breweries,
check out this amazing graphic my colleague Tad Sooter put
together. Oh, and below, you’ll also find a full list of beers for
the Summer BrewFest.

Did you know that the most decorated vessel in U.S. Navy
history is perched right here* in Bremerton?

Next time you take a walk downtown — perhaps Saturday for the
Armed Forces Day parade — be sure to go to the entrance of the
Harborside Fountain Park. There, you’ll find the sail of the USS
Parche, a vessel highly decorated but largely unknown.

Why? As you’ll learn in the above video, the Parche did a lot of
spying in the Cold War years. While its missions are still
classified, some believe it was tapping telephone cables within
Soviet seas, unearthing a wealth of intelligence. Many details can
be found in the book “Blind
Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine
Espionage.”

In any case, president after president praised the boat and its
crew just about every time it came home. As reporter Andy Binion
noted when the
sail was installed here:

The submarine earned 13 Expeditionary Medals, 10 Navy Unit
commendations and nine presidential unit citations, making it the
most decorated submarine in U.S. Navy history.

Little known fact: there’s actually no such thing as
“Lower,” or even “Old” Wheaton Way. It’s just a title
we Bremerton residents use to distinguish a meandering little
thoroughfare from the much larger commercial corridor nearby.

Roots of the road date back to the 1920s. Once lined with
popular spots like the
Maple Leaf Tavern and the hopping
Bay Bowl, it became an oddly wide street with only a few
businesses left (the Bay Bowl, I should add, is now home to a Thai
restaurant).

At noon on Saturday, I invite you to come
out and walk this nearly mile-long stretch of revamped roadway.
We’ll tell tales of its history, discuss its transformation and
contemplate its future.

We’ll meet at Whitey Domstad Park, the little
green space next to the Manette Bridge roundabout and just above
the Boat Shed restaurant.

And speaking of local merchants, the Boat Shed and FOUND in
Manette have agreed to offer 10 percent off to those who go on the
Story Walk, and The Weekender on East 11th will take 15 percent off
an item that day following the walk.

This is the fourth story walk of the year. Here’s links to our
previous walks:

At least, it’s starting to feel like that. The mothball fleet —
short for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard’s inactive ship
maintenance facility — is indeed getting smaller. The Connie
already left and the Independence will leave later this year.

I interviewed Amanda Jean, a lifelong Bremerton resident, about
what the mothball fleet means to her, as a civilian. She told
me:

“Mothball fleet means home. Bremerton is known for
our shipyard — you see those carriers and you know you’re here.
That’s what this town is all about.”

We’ll just have to get used to a few less carriers
for awhile. The USS Enterprise isn’t due to arrive until at least
2018.

Here’s a few photos of the Ranger’s
departure.

Jack C. Harpel watched it leave
from the pier Thursday. Great shot!John Moore, a retired Navy
captain who served aboard the USS Ranger in the 1960s, took this
great shot from Annapolis.Coming into Sinclair
Inlet.Passing Bachmann Park in
Manette.Another stellar shot by Patrick
Kerber as the Ranger enters Rich Passage.

In honor of president’s day, I brushed up on my Kitsap County
presidential history and found out some fascinating tidbits about
those rare times POTUS stopped
by. I was lucky to have a copy of historian and journalist Fredi
Perry Pargeter’s book “Bremerton
and PSNY,” which devotes a whole chapter to presidential
visits.

Here’s a rundown of the Oval Office occupiers’ visits and why
they came:

Rutherford B. Hayes: In 1880, Hayes came by
ship to Bainbridge Island, where he helped cut a 150-foot long tree
at Port Blakely Mill.

Teddy Roosevelt: Not long after the shipyard
was built, Teddy Roosevelt came to see it in 1903. Roosevelt didn’t
stay long — half hour or so — and thus let down quite a number of
onlookers who’d hoped to catch a glimpse of Teddy. But later on his
trip, he journeyed to Tacoma, where a man from Manette — who had
been a roughrider alongside Roosevelt — came to see him.

William H. Taft: Taft also visited the
shipyard, this time in 1911. During the visit, he apparently
remarked that Charleston, then an independent city, was simply too
close to Bremerton and that the two should be joined together. They
were.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: No. 32 visited Kitsap
more than any other president. He came twice as assistant secretary
of the Navy and as president came another two times. The first, in
1942, was done in secret for war planning. The then Bremerton Sun
didn’t know about the visit until nine days after it had happened.
The second visit was public and Roosevelt made a speech aboard the
USS Cummings, a picture of which you can find prominently displayed
at the Bremerton Bar and Grill. He held himself up to appear
standing, though he was afflicted with polio.

Harry S. Truman: The Missourian came to
Bremerton in 1948 and gave a stump speech at the corner of Fifth
and Pacific. It’s widely believed, even by Truman himself, that it
was here someone shouted the phrase, “Give ’em hell, Harry.” While
it’s in dispute, I’d say let’s just go with it.

Bill Clinton: In 1993, the former Arkansas
governor brought together leaders from Asian-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) countries on Blake Island. During the video we
made, I misspoke — in an effort to be more causal, Clinton brought
them all leather Bombardier jackets, not jean jackets,
according to the Washington Post.

Additionally, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter are both believed
to have come to Kitsap before they were president. And there’s a
rumor that even JFK stopped by. But that will take some additional
research.